Anglo-Saxon Period—Buckets—Drinking-cups of wood—Bronze Bowls—Bronze Boxes—Combs—Tweezers—ChÂtelaines—Girdle Ornaments—Keys—Hair-pins—Counters, or Draughtmen, and Dice—Querns—Triturating Stones, etc.—Conclusion.

Buckets, so called, and very appropriately, from their close resemblance in form to our modern vessels bearing that name, are occasionally found in Anglo-Saxon graves. They are small wooden vessels bound round with hoops or rims of bronze, more or less ornamented, and have a handle of the same metal arched over their tops. Of course in every case the wooden staves of which they were composed, and which were of ash, are decomposed, the hoops, handle, and mountings alone remaining. They vary very much in size; one from Bourne Park had the lower hoop twelve inches in diameter, and the upper one ten inches, and the whole height appears to have been about a foot; the handle was hooked at its ends exactly the same as in our present buckets, and fitted into loops on the sides; it had three looped bronze feet to stand upon. Other examples only measure four or five inches in diameter. The example here engraved (fig. 460) was found in Northamptonshire, along with other remains. It is composed of three encircling hoops of bronze, and has its handle and attachments also of the same metal.

The next example (fig. 461) is from Fairford, in Gloucestershire, and is three inches in height, and four inches in diameter. The hoops and mountings are of bronze. Another example, which I give for the purpose of comparison, is from Envermeu, in Normandy (fig. 462). Of the use of these utensils nothing certain, of course, is known, but it is conjectured they were used for bringing in mead, ale, or wine, to fill the drinking-cups—the objection to this as a general rule being their very small size. “The Anglo-Saxon translation of the Book of Judges (vii. 20) rendered hydrias confregissent, by ‘?o-b?oecon pa buca?,’ i.e. ‘they broke the buckets.’ A common name for this vessel, which was properly called buc, was oescen, signifying literally a vessel made of ash, the favourite wood of the Anglo-Saxons.”

Drinking-cups were sometimes of wood. Of these, two examples are here given. The first of these has a rim of brass, the second a like rim attached by overlapping bands. It has also a number of small bands of the same metal riveted on to mend cracks in the wood. They were found in a barrow on Sibertswold Down, in Kent.

Bowls of bronze are occasionally also found. Some of these are plain, others enamelled or otherwise ornamented, and others, again, gilt. Many of them appear from their form to have been of Roman origin. Some remarkably fine examples have been yielded by the graves of Kent and other districts. The one here engraved (fig. 465) was found at Over-Haddon, in Derbyshire, along with the remains of a circular enamelled disc of the kind described on a previous page, and other relics. The bowl was seven inches in diameter, and had originally two handles. They are supposed to have been used for placing hot meats in, on the table. They range in size from four or five to twelve or fourteen inches in diameter.

Small boxes of bronze are occasionally found, and are of different forms. Some are plain upright boxes with lids, just intended to hold sewing materials—in fact, the work-boxes of the Saxon ladies—and others are rather large, and have been intended to contain the comb, etc.: they are, therefore, a kind of dressing-cases. The box engraved on fig. 466 was found along with other Saxon remains near Church Sterndale. The grave, which was cut in the rock, contained a skeleton of a woman; the lower bones were fairly preserved, but of the upper parts there were but few remains, the enamel crowns of the teeth being in the best condition. “At the left hip was a small iron knife four inches long, and where the right shoulder had been was an assemblage of curious articles, the most important of which was a small bronze box or canister, with a lid to slide on, measuring altogether two inches high, and the same in diameter. When found, it was much crushed, but still retained, inside, remains of thread, and bore on the outside impressions of linen cloth. Close to it were two bronze pins or broken needles, and a mass of corroded iron, some of which has been wire chainwork connected with a small bronze ornament with five perforations, plated with silver, and engraved with a cable pattern, near which were two iron implements of larger size, the whole comprising the girdle and chÂtelaine, with appendages, of a Saxon lady. Many pieces of hazel stick were found in contact with these relics, which were probably the remains of a basket in which they were placed at the funeral. All the iron shows impressions of woven fabrics, three varieties being distinguishable; namely, coarse and fine linen, and coarse flannel or woollen cloth. The box is very faintly ornamented by lozenges, produced by the intersection of oblique lines scratched in the metal.”

The next engraving shows a bronze box of quite a different character, found with Anglo-Saxon remains at Newhaven. It is two inches in diameter, but very thick. It has six vertical ribs and two bars for attachment of the lid.

Needles and pins are frequently met with. The two shown on fig. 466 will, however, be sufficient to call attention to these minute objects.

Combs of the Anglo-Saxon period differ but little from those of the Romans, or indeed from those of the present day. They were, both Roman and Saxon, sometimes toothed on one side and sometimes on both sides, and were made alike of wood, of metal, of bone, and of ivory. Boxwood appears to have been so much used for the manufacture of combs as to have occasionally given its own name to them. Thus Martial says:—

Wooden combs have naturally for the most part perished, but fragments have occasionally been found. Combs, both of bronze and iron, of the Roman period, have also been discovered. The greater part, however, both of that and of the Saxon period, which have been exhumed, are of bone and ivory. A good example of the single-edged or “backed” comb is given on fig. 469; they varied much in ornamentation. The next (fig. 470) is toothed on both its edges, and has guards or covers to fit on the teeth, in the same manner as common pocket-combs of the present day. The next is a comb with a handle, which was dredged up out of the river Thames. The period is somewhat uncertain, but I give it for the purpose of comparison, as I do also the three next figures, the first of which is from the mummy graves at Arica, the second a modern wooden comb from the same district, and the third an Indian scalp-comb. Combs from Rangoon, in the Burmese empire, and from China, are also very curiously illustrative of those of early races found in our own country.

Mirrors such as are found in Roman graves are occasionally, but very rarely, met with; they were, of course, articles for the toilet. Shears or scissors of iron, some of which are of precisely the same form as our modern sheep-shears, and others of the shape of scissors of the present day, are of not unfrequent occurrence. Tweezers, too, are occasionally met with. The usual form is shown on fig. 475. They are of bronze, and were, it is said, used for pulling out superfluous hairs from the body. They with the scissors were frequently worn attached to the girdle, along with other instruments, of which I shall now say a few words.

ChÂtelaines, or girdle-hangers, are among the most interesting of discoveries in the graves of Saxon females. They consist of a bunch of small implements of various kinds—keys, tweezers, scissors, tooth-picks, ear-picks, nail-cleaners, etc., and ornaments of one kind or other—hung on a chain, which being attached to the girdle hung down by the side to the thigh, or, in some instances, evidently as low as the knee. The various instruments are of silver, bronze, or iron, and are generally, the iron especially, corroded into an almost shapeless mass. The silver and bronze being more endurable, the instruments of these metals are better preserved. The example here given (fig. 476) is from one of the Kentish graves. Of some of the articles found the use is unknown, but most can be easily identified. A bunch of what is supposed to be three latch-keys is given on fig. 477, and on the next figure, 478, two curious objects, the use of which has probably been to hang small instruments on, to attach them to the girdle. For the same use, probably, are the curious and somewhat puzzling objects which are occasionally met with, and are here shown on fig. 479. They are found in pairs, attached at the top, and vary much in the pattern of the lower extremities. Probably the girdle passed through the upper part, and keys and other objects would be hung on the lower ends. Each side of the one here engraved is six and a half inches in length. A large variety of girdle ornaments have been found in different districts.

Hair-pins are of various forms and lengths. They are generally of bronze, but sometimes of bone. They are sometimes plain, but at others highly ornamented, occasionally being richly enamelled. Fig. 480 is of unique form, and has three flat pendants of bronze attached to its head by a ring. Besides hair-pins, numbers of metal pins for domestic purposes are met with.

Of locks and keys, scales and weights, and many other articles, it will not be necessary to speak at further length than simply to note that they are sometimes found in Saxon graves. Bells—small hand-bells—too, are found in the graves of women. They are of bronze or iron, and of the rectangular form so characteristic of Saxon bells of larger size.

One of the most curious set of objects which the Saxon graves of Derbyshire have produced is a set of twenty-eight bone counters, or draughtmen, some of which are shown on the following engraving (fig. 484) where they are represented of their full size. They were found by Mr. Bateman in a barrow near Cold Eaton, along with an interment of burnt bones, some fragments of iron, and portions of two bone combs. The draughtmen, as they are supposed to be, and the combs, had been burnt with the body. The following is Mr. Bateman’s account of this curious discovery:—

“The barrow was about twenty yards across, with a central elevation of eighteen inches, and was entirely composed of earth. The original deposit was placed in a circular hole, eighteen inches in diameter, sunk about six inches in the stony surface of the land on which the barrow was raised, so that the entire depth from the top of the latter was two feet. The interment consisted of a quantity of calcined human bones, which lay upon a thin layer of earth at the bottom of the hole, as compactly as if they had at first been deposited within a shallow basket or similar perishable vessel. Upon them lay some fragments of iron, part of two bone combs, and twenty-eight convex objects of bone, like button-moulds.

“The pieces of iron have been attached to some article of perishable material; the largest fragment has a good-sized loop, as if for suspension. One of the combs has been much like the small-tooth comb used in our nurseries, and is ornamented by small annulets cut in the bone; the other is of more elaborate make, having teeth on each side as the former, but being strengthened by a rib up the middle of both sides, covered with a finely cut herring-bone pattern, and attached by iron rivets.

“The twenty-eight bone objects (of which nine are engraved on fig. 484) consist of flattened hemispherical pieces, mostly with dots on the convex side; in some, dots within annulets. They vary from half an inch to an inch in diameter, and have generally eight, nine, or ten dots each; but these are disposed so irregularly that it would be difficult to count them off-hand, which leads to the conclusion that these counters would not be employed for playing any game dependent upon numbers, like dominoes or dice, but that they were more probably used for a game analogous to draughts. This is most likely to be the fact, as draughtmen have occasionally been found in Scandinavian grave-mounds; and we must assign this interment to the Saxons, whose customs were in many respects identical. All the articles found in this barrow have undergone the process of combustion, along with the human remains.”

In Yorkshire, some years ago, a stone, marked in small squares like a draught-board, was found at Scambridge.58 In a grave at Gilton, in Kent, two small dice, here engraved of their full size (fig. 485), were found. They were formed of ivory or bone.

Querns, or hand-mills, for grinding corn, have on many occasions been found in or about Anglo-Saxon interments. The one engraved on the next figure (fig. 486) was found in a Saxon grave in the grounds of Miss Worsley, at Winster, along with many other interesting relics. One half of the quern had been burnt along with the body, as had also many of the stones which formed the mound.

The next (fig. 487) is from Kings Newton, the same locality referred to under the head of Anglo-Saxon pottery. Portions of stones which have evidently formed triturating stones, or grinders, are occasionally found in the grave-mounds of different periods. These have doubtless been of the same general character with the two here engraved for comparison (figs. 488 and 489). Similar stones are found in Ireland.

Besides the objects here spoken of, a large variety of interesting remains of a miscellaneous character are found in the Saxon graves, but which, however interesting they may be, do not require in my present work to be specially noted.

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I have endeavoured in the foregoing pages to give, in as brief a form as was consistent with a clear description of the objects, a faithful picture of the endless stores of treasures which the grave-mounds of our earliest forefathers open out to us, and to point out, with the aid of illustrations, the characteristics of each of the three great divisions, so as to enable my readers correctly to appropriate any remains which may come under their notice. I have purposely, and studiously, avoided theory and conjecture as far as was at all possible; contenting myself rather with bringing forward facts, which observations, personal or otherwise, into the grave-mounds and their contents have established, than speculating upon matters which can have no real bearing upon the subject.

It is said that “there is nothing new under the sun.” The researches which have been made into the grave-mounds of the three great periods—the Celtic, the Romano-British, and the Anglo-Saxon—tend immeasurably to show the approximate truth of this adage, and my readers, from the foregoing pages, will be able to judge pretty correctly how many of our so-called modern inventions and appliances were common to, and in use by, our predecessors of “centuries and tens of centuries” of years gone by.